Are you suffering from a royal wedding hangover?

Having analysed the results for a number of appeals and spoken to fundraisers from throughout the sector, it looks like we are suffering from a royal wedding DM hangover.

Fundraising campaigns that were mailed in the run up to Easter or shortly after the wedding (29th of April) seem to have generated some pretty rotten results.

Year on year comparisons of warm and cold campaigns are showing a significant downturn.

Though we can't ignore the economic situation, I think there are three environmental factors surrounding the wedding that have combined to create the problem…

1. People took the opportunity of the late Easter, May Day and wedding holiday to take ten days off work for the price of three.
2. Post was slow (postal staff take holidays too) resulting in many mailing packs being stuck in the system and not dropping until the second week in May.
3. Many charities rushed to beat the Royal Mail price rise deadline (May 7th) increasing the glut of mailing packs hitting the mat in that same week.

Tania Cohen mentioned on Twitter that she remembers poor response rates being discussed the last time Easter was close to May Day (2000). She also pointed out that it wouldn't be until 2038 that it happened again.